


A Day in the Life of Janine Melnitz

by TouchingOldMagic



Series: Ghostbusters 30 Day Challenge [9]
Category: Ghostbusters (Comics), Ghostbusters - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Peter being Peter, a day in the life fic, babysitting nerds is her day job
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:28:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24765433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TouchingOldMagic/pseuds/TouchingOldMagic
Summary: Day 9 of the Ghostbusters 30 Day ChallengePrompt: The ReceptionistEven on normal days, a Ghostbusters receptionist's life is an interesting one.
Series: Ghostbusters 30 Day Challenge [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1779643
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17





	A Day in the Life of Janine Melnitz

5:57 A.M.

She's awake minutes before her alarm is about to go off, reaching over to turn it off as she rises. It's for peace of mind as much as habit--for some reason her apartment bedroom always feels cold and unpleasant if the blaring alarm jolts her out of sleep, and sometimes the closet doorknob clicks and the door eases open just an inch when she stands up, as if she didn't quite catch the latch when she closed it the night before.

She doesn't believe her apartment is haunted; the closet latch has been tricky since she moved in. But she firmly believes in better safe than sorry, and if stopping the alarm before it goes off allows anyone else within hearing range to have a little better attitude in the morning, it's no big trouble to learn to be an early riser.

Especially if it keeps her from having to ask her employers to come by, which would result in at least a quarter of her possessions being set on fire.

6:35 A.M.

Her racquetball partner is late, so she starts warming up on her own. This gym is a friendly one, which is one of the reasons she keeps paying the pricey membership. It isn't long before someone sees her on the court alone and asks if she needs a partner. He's cute, tall and dark-haired, which makes it easy to say yes.

8:30 A.M.

Her key opens the smaller door set in the garage doors of Ghostbusters HQ and she steps through. It smells of motor oil and ozone inside, just as it always does.

At one point they had the lights set to motion-sensors, but someone had cannibalized the device for parts for something else and it hadn't been replaced yet.

She turns on lights as she heads to her desk, leaving the ones upstairs for when the guys get in. Tucking her purse under the desk, she boots up her computer and checks her post-it notes to remind her of the day's priorities.

8:47 A.M.

Egon arrives, pushing the front door open and walking through without looking up from the graphing calculator held in his hand.

"Good morning, Egon!" she calls out to him. He usually arrives before the others. Despite that he's already focused on his work, she enjoys the thought that it'll just be the two of them for a while.

"Good morning, Janine," he responds automatically. He doesn't look up from his calculations as he passes the desk and heads up the stairs, but he pauses briefly when he returns her greeting.

"Turn on the lights so you don't trip!" she calls up after him.

She hears the click of the lights soon after.

9:20 A.M.

Ray and Winston walk in together, deep in conversation. They're both holding bags from the auto store where they prefer getting their car parts, which explains their late arrival.

She doesn't want to interrupt them so she simply waves a greeting, but Ray pipes up a cheerful "Hi, Janine!" without pausing a beat in his conversation. Winston settles for a wave back.

11:17 A.M.

Peter Venkman strolls in, whistling something tunelessly. She doesn't look up from her computer screen, because giving him attention just encourages him and she's hoping to finish the invoice she's working on before he can distract her.

"Janine, this is important, I need to ask you a question. As a woman, I mean. Is it unfair to the other men on the street that this jacket fits me so well?"

She sighs.

12:05 P.M.

She's already set the answering machine and grabbed her purse when a voice from behind her attempts to halt her from leaving.

"Janine, you know, the noon hour is a busy time around here. People call us on their lunch breaks. Would it kill ya to wait until one before you head for lunch?"

"The machine's already on, Dr. Venkman, but if YOU want to watch the phones for thirty minutes, be my guest," she tosses over her shoulder. "If you can tear yourself away from your work, I mean."

Peter turns the page of his magazine and doesn't reply.

12:35 P.M.

When she returns, she automatically checks the answering machine. There's zero messages. She turns around in her seat and gives Peter an expectant look. Wordlessly he stands up, stretches. He leaves his office, dropping a pile of scribbled notes in front of her on his way to the stairs.

She almost feels a moment's surprise and appreciation before she squints at the pile and realizes his handwriting is almost illegible. She scowls.

He CAN write more legibly. She knows it. She has seen him give his number to clients before. Well, so be it. As if she hadn't gotten skilled at reading his scrawl over the years. She doesn't demand to know what the chicken scratch is that covers her desk. She won't give him the satisfaction.

2:39 P.M.

The firehouse is quiet when the guys are out on a call, but never silent. The computer and the overhead lights hum with electricity. Sometimes the painting of Vigo in the corner mutters to itself, though it mostly stopped speaking to them over a year ago. Sometimes there's a subtle vibration in the floor, if there's a big experiment running upstairs.

The air itself sometimes seems to hum at a frequency almost beyond her hearing, and when she asked Ray about it, he theorized that she could feel the presence of the hundreds of unhappy ghosts trapped in the containment unit downstairs.

She forgot it's usually not a good idea to ask Ray these things.

When the guys return, it's the sound of the electric garage door opener that alerts her. She continues with her typing as Ecto stops and the engine cuts off with a low growl. The driver door opens first. Winston climbs out from behind the wheel, at the same time Ray opens the front passenger door. Neither of them are talking, which is unusual. She stops what she's doing.

One of the back doors opens and Peter climbs out. He's not talking either. The other door doesn't open. She stands up.

Peter holds up his hands as she comes around from behind her desk. "Don't get your knickers in a twist, Janine," he says. "He took a header off a landing and brained himself on the overhang. Paramedics say he's fine, just rattled his marbles."

Winston's the one who opens the rear driver's side door. Egon emerges, slow and unsteady, a white gauze square on his left temple and a bandage wrapped around his head that made him look like an injured cartoon character. It might have been comical if she wasn't picturing his body sprawled at the bottom of a stairway like a dropped doll.

5:45 P.M.

It's past the time that she usually leaves, but that's what always happens when one of them gets injured. She can't help it, even when there's nothing for her to do. Especially when there's nothing for her to do.

She pokes around the firehouse, making sure dishes are out of the sink, old coffee is poured out, things left on tables are put away. It doesn't take the degree on the wall of Peter's office to tell her it's because her feelings of helplessness at times like this are almost enough to drive her crazy. She's not fussing. That's for old ladies. She's making sure things are covered. That's her job.

"Egon, are you sure you're all right?" she asks.

"I'm fine," he says shortly, impatience and pain adding a bite to the words that she isn't offended by.

She would take him at his word, but he's been on the couch in the lab for at least forty-five minutes. His heavy-lidded expression under the gauze wrap makes him look like someone caught halfway between exhaustion and a migraine that won't let them rest.

"Well, if there's anything you need..." She lets the offer dangle in the air, and he acknowledges her with a curt nod but doesn't say anything else.

Peter, normally one to keep out of the lab, is searching for some paperwork in one of the filing cabinets in the corner.

6:15 P.M.

Finally Peter drives her off with the threat of not approving her overtime hours unless she leaves. She says goodbye on her way downstairs. It's hard to feel annoyed about the late hour when all four of the guys are still present when she leaves, with no sign of heading home themselves.

 _Not a one of us has been very good at separating our personal lives from this place,_ she muses to herself as she locks the front door behind her.

9:30 P.M.

She checks the closet door to make sure it's fully closed and latched before she climbs into bed for the night, so it won't be tempted to swing open on her. Her apartment is not haunted, but Mama Melnitz didn't raise a fool.

**Author's Note:**

> In the IDW comic'verse, the guys have their own apartments and don't live at the firehouse, in case anyone is confused.


End file.
